Airport security device issues cannot be fixed

The high-tech security scanners that provoked national controversy because of revealing body images are being removed from U.S. airports, including San Diego’s Lindbergh Field.

The Transportation Security Administration said Friday the scanners, which used a low-dose X-ray, will be gone by June because the company that makes them can’t fix the privacy issues.

At Lindbergh’s three terminals, there are a total of 11 of the so-called backscatter scanners that have fueled complaints because of naked images produced by the machines.

The TSA defended the scanners, saying the images couldn’t be stored and were seen only by a security worker who didn’t interact with the passenger. But Congress ordered that the scanners either produce a more generic image or be removed by June.

On Thursday Rapiscan, the maker of the backscatter scanner, acknowledged that it wouldn’t be able to meet the June deadline. The TSA said Friday that it ended its contract for the software with Rapiscan.

A second type of full-body scanner, used at other airports across the country, is staying. It produces a generic outline instead of a naked image.

The TSA said the remaining scanners will move travelers through more quickly, meaning faster lanes at the airport. Those scanners, made by L-3 Communications, use millimeter waves to make their images.

The agency will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports they’re used in now. An additional 76 are in storage. It has 669 of the millimeter-wave machines it is keeping, plus options for 60 more, TSA spokesman David Castelveter said.

Not all of the machines will be replaced. Castelveter said that some airports that now have backscatter scanners will go back to having metal detectors.

The San Diego airport is expected to get millimeter-wave machines by the end of the year, the TSA said.

“We support TSA’s decision to replace the scanners and will work with them in any way necessary to get the new scanners installed,” said airport spokeswoman Katie Jones.

In addition to the 11 Rapiscan machines, the airport has 14 of the more-conventional metal detectors, she said.

Lindbergh Field gained national attention in 2010 when John Tyner of Oceanside, facing the prospect of a full-body search after refusing a body scan, told a TSA agent, “If you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested.”

Tyner recorded the 30-minute encounter on his cellphone and later posted it to his blog, along with an extensive account of the incident. The blog went viral, tapping into the public’s concerns about invasion of privacy.

His protest ultimately gave rise to National Opt-Out Day in which travelers across the country were urged by activists and websites to decline to go through the full-body scanners and submit to the more time-consuming pat-down by TSA agents.

But National Opt-Out Day proved to be largely a bust as most passengers submitted to the security checks.

Reached on Friday, Tyner said the decision to phase out the scanners fails to address his fundamental objection to what he says is a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.